- Dyson announced on Tuesday that 1,000 UK jobs will be cut following a review
Brexit billionaire Sir James Dyson sparked a backlash when he decided to move his company’s global headquarters to Singapore just three years after the referendum.
He defended the move and always maintained that Dyson was a “British company”. But Dyson appears to have once again turned its back on Britain by cutting a third of its UK workforce.
The vacuum and air appliance maker has announced that 1,000 of its 3,500 UK workforce will lose their jobs as part of a global workforce review.
Experts believe the decision did not come as a “surprise” as Dyson has seen increased competition from similar rivals, while some new products have struggled to gain traction in recent years.
Sir James was one of the loudest business voices supporting Brexit, but in 2019 he moved the company to Singapore. He criticized the last Conservative government’s growth plans and last year slammed Rishi Sunak’s “pathetic” science and technology policy.
The 77-year-old has also criticized Labour’s economic policies, but the job cuts are believed to have nothing to do with the party’s landslide general election win.
The company has bases in Malmesbury, Wiltshire, London and Bristol and staff were informed of the latest development in an email on Tuesday morning.
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Professor Andrew Graves, a mechanical engineer and political scientist at the University of Bath, said industry insiders were not surprised by the move and had “been pointing this out for a long time”.
He told the BBC: “There’s huge competition from Dyson products right across the world and a lot of Dyson products have really failed recently.
“They put two billion in Hullavington to build an electric car and that was withdrawn quite quickly when they realized it was too difficult.
“And also some of their latest products haven’t been great in the market, they’re really struggling on all fronts at the moment.
“It’s a huge cost reduction,” he added.
The professor said it would be “devastating” for the town of Malmesbury if there were to be large-scale redundancies.
Roz Savage, the new Lib Dem MP for South Cotswolds, added: “It’s huge. Malmesbury is a close-knit community and I’m sure if people are at risk of losing their jobs then their pain will be felt across the community, local businesses and the local economy will be affected.
“This is potentially very important news and I am very concerned.”
Dyson chief executive Hanno Kirner said the “painful” layoffs were decided after a review of global operations commissioned earlier this year.
In a statement, the company said: “We have grown rapidly and, like all companies, we review our global structures from time to time to ensure we are ready for the future.
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“As such, we are proposing changes to our organization that may lead to redundancies.
“Dyson operates in increasingly fierce and competitive global markets where the pace of innovation and change is only accelerating.
“We know we must always be entrepreneurial and agile – principles that are not new to Dyson.
“Decisions that affect close and talented colleagues are always incredibly painful.
“Those whose roles are at risk of redundancy as a result of the proposals will be supported throughout the process.”
Sir James, fifth on the Sunday Times Rich List with a personal fortune of £20.8bn, donated £6m to fund Malmesbury Primary School in January and last year announced plans to invest £100m in a new research and development center in central Bristol.
Dyson has cut 600 jobs in the UK and another 300 worldwide during the pandemic, saying shopping habits have changed.
It is understood the decision to cut the jobs was made before the general election was called.
Dyson moved production to Malaysia in 2002 and established its headquarters in Singapore in 2019, but continued to base research and development in Malmesbury.
On the face of it, Dyson is doing well as a business – with sales reaching a record £7.1bn last year. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization were close to an all-time high of £1.4 billion.
However, growth has slowed in recent years. Between 2015 and 2019, sales tripled from £1.7 billion to £5.4 billion. But in the following four years, they grew at a more stable rate, rising by a third.
It comes as R&D grew by 40 percent last year, while the manufacturer spent heavily on new facilities, including a battery factory in Singapore.
Dyson was also influenced by low-cost Asian competitors. Several cordless vacuum cleaners are now available on Amazon, some even in the company’s signature colors.
Sir James has always been proud of Dyson for its innovation, pioneering bagless vacuum cleaners in the early 1990s and the ‘rod’ design in the late 2000s.
In recent years, however, her ideas have come under scrutiny. In 2019, Sir James had to scrap a £500m electric car project after admitting it was not “commercially viable”.
It tried to fight back next year by investing £2.75bn in areas such as artificial intelligence, robotics and energy storage.
It meant a move to high-tech gadgets, including the Dyson Zone headphones, which have an attached air-purifying mask.
While sales figures haven’t been released, the premium Zone model currently retails for £580 – 29 per cent less than its original £820.
And its £1,200 robot vacuum competes with alternative models including a £150 version from Eufa in China.
Dyson’s commitment to the UK as a major R&D base is not expected to be affected by the job cuts, while the institute, which provides undergraduate engineering programmes, will continue to be based at the Malmesbury site.
Sir James has been outspoken about the Conservative government’s policies.
He previously hit out at the Tories for taking a “short-sighted” and “stupid” economic approach with too much red tape and high taxes.
In January 2023, the tycoon said Britain was stuck in a state of “Covid inertia” that was holding back the economy.
Sir James accused the Conservative government of “interfering” and “penalizing the private sector”.
He also complained that the failure to get workers back to the office after the pandemic had “severely damaged the country’s self-confidence and morale”.
Sir James wrote in The Daily Telegraph: “The government seems intent on going the other way with stifling regulation, more interference in business and thinking it can impose tax on companies in the belief that penalizing the private sector is an electoral win urns free.”
He warned: “This is as short-sighted as it is stupid. In a global economy, companies simply choose to transfer jobs and invest elsewhere.
“Our country has an illustrious history of entrepreneurship and innovation that was born out of a culture that we are now extinguishing.”
The businessman also praised the aggressive, tax-cutting economic policies of former Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng and former Prime Minister Liz Truss.
The pair’s disastrous mini-budget saw both senior politicians eventually lose their jobs weeks after taking office.
“I’m disappointed we’re not going for growth,” he said this year.
“I was hoping (with Ms. Truss and Mr. Kwarteng). I thought they were doing the right thing – I was the only one who did.
“Kwarteng didn’t raise taxes.” He went for growth, which I think is the right thing to do. It allows us to pay for things and creates wealth.”
Sir James is said to have had a ‘fiery’ meeting with former chancellor Jeremy Hunt earlier this year, who reportedly told the businessman: ‘If you think you could do a better job, why don’t you stand for election?’
The businessman was knighted in 2007 for services to business.
He came under fire in 2019 after announcing that the firm’s global headquarters were moving from the UK to Singapore, but defended the move.: “It would be arrogant to think that we could design and develop products for Asia and Britain.
“We can develop technology, but understand what Asians want and what works in the market – we have to be there, we have to be immersed in it.
“I can’t make things here and bring all the parts here from the Far East, assemble them here, and then ship them back to the Far East. It’s just not possible.”
Sir Dyson also reaffirmed the company’s commitment to Britain.
In an interview three years ago, as the UK emerged from the Covid pandemic, he said: “We are a British company – I have put a lot into this country.
“I’ve invested about £2 billion in this site,” he said. ‘I hire more people, I employ 4,000 people here, I pay a lot of taxes here.’
Dyson, which was founded in 1991, played a key role during the pandemic, working with Cambridge-based scientists and technology partnerships to produce 10,000 ventilators for hospitals across the country.
Shortly after Covid hit, it announced it would cut 600 jobs in the UK and 300 more globally due to the impact of the virus.
The company, which employs 14,000 people worldwide, said the affected staff were in retail and customer service roles, adding that it was working to move people to alternative jobs where possible.